Treblig 🇺🇦

Sorry I know I'm ranting about this, but the dishonesty of “respect the legitimate concerns” discourse really bugs me. Never any discussion of trade-offs, never any discussion of unintended consequences, never any acknowledgement that immigration restrictionists are responsible for the status quo

They also need to be explicit and honest that successive governments for at least a generation have been trying to be “tough” on immigration and this is where we are, so if people want even more restrictions they really shouldn't expect things to be that different from the status quo

What the Boris Wave shows is that every aspect of the immigration and asylum system that voter respecters sagely shake their heads about was created by people who share their views about immigration and as a way of reducing immigration

Maybe, just maybe, after God knows how many years of immigration restrictionism, it's not the people saying “hey these immigration restrictions don't seem like a great idea” who need to go to their rooms and think about what they've done?

And it's not just this government. “We must take people’s legitimate concerns about immigration seriously” has been the default position of all the main parties in Westminster for my entire life, and I'm in my mid 30s. And it's not exactly gone well by *any* possible metric

Maybe they would, but it just takes one or two clubs to break from the pack and take a stand to force everyone into action. Easier to rug sweep if it's only one club with a decision to make

Sure, but I'm saying they should have, because it is established that the line of Durin knew Durin’s bane was a Balrog, and Ironfoot had recently said “don't go into Moria, Durin’s bane is still there”

Agree about Fernandez, but also think he was able to get off without consequences because they allowed it to be just about him. It'd be harder to do that if a few other clubs had said “we’re taking action against X player for being involved in racist singing”

Should have been less focused on that and more focused on a better explanation for Balin setting up shop in Moria than “the line of Durin just collectively forgot that Durin’s bane was a Balrog, I guess?”

Don't disagree with any of that. But clearly many other squad members were singing it and no one was objecting, and I didn't like that it was individualised. Clearly it's a bigger underlying problem and pinning it on one player makes it easier to sweep it under the rug

(that said, I don't think Lord of the Rings is free of plot holes, albeit much fewer than almost any other author)

Everything I've read about Tolkien suggests that the man was psychotically pedantic and would literally rather kill himself than publish something with a plot hole, so it tracks that he'd be constantly brainstorming new plot lines to cover his bases

I'm prepared to believe that the rest of the squad has genuinely forgiven Fernandez by now, as he's clearly not unpopular with the others, and I did think it was dishonest for other teams and players to act like he was the only one singing.

That said, Chelsea’s response at the time was appalling

What she lacks in effort, etc., she makes up for in being…just so incredibly funny

I honestly don't think you can end up thinking Glasman and McSweeney have anything interesting to say unless you've spent your entire adulthood in Oxbridge, the bar and parliament (which she has)

I feel like the simplest explanation for her politics is that she has terminal Westminster brain. Her politics are an insane caricature of modern Westminster groupthink and she speaks like someone who has spent a third of their entire life in parliament (and politics generally for all their life)

Yeah I think you could wing it with a mediocre penalty more in the past, not really anymore.

The increase in panenkas is weird and honestly I think it is just showing off, because there doesn't seem to be any evidence of them giving you any kind of advantage. Same with the little jumps

Agreed. I think the big difference now is that it's harder to get away with taking a bad penalty

(I think the added pressure from goalkeepers having background knowledge of where a penalty taker will hit the ball has had a much bigger impact on penalty shootouts than games that end on 90 minutes)

So as long as a team has a player who can (through natural talent or learnt technique) place the ball into the top corner 99 times out of 100 without it going wide or hitting the woodwork, you're basically fine for penalties in regular games

Hmmm I'm not sure I totally agree. Goalkeepers studying how individual players take penalties has had an impact, but the fundamentals are not that different: a penalty placed in the top corner is almost impossible to reach, and you can teach that technique

Reform win a seat: The true Volk have spoken and we all must listen.

Greens win a seat: Early reports that Muslims may have ‘voted’ (an ancient Islamic practice designed to steal elections). How severely should the franchise be limited in response?

It's not even “how was I supposed to know the world's most notorious liar was lying?” it's “how was I supposed to know the fictional Trump I invented, that Trump explicitly said didn't exist, was fictional?” bsky.app/profile/polp...

If I infiltrated the UK government and started trying to pitch policies that would encourage as much illegal immigration as possible, I'd be suggesting the exact same policies that this Home Secretary is pushing

My contempt for the Home Secretary is more than outweighed by how colossally, densely stupid she is. If she really thinks this is going to achieve her desired goals, then frankly she shouldn't be allowed near scissors

Completely agree with everything Dan has said, but I have to add that this will encourage more illegal immigration. This doesn't deter people from coming, it deters them from engaging with the system and encourages them to go underground

could a dying empire do THIS

One positive from today is that if Tuchel starts Reece, Rice and Saka then England are getting so many goals at the World Cup. Unbelievable that Southgate had *Foden* on corner duty for England

Yeah it wasn't his best performance, but he won the ball back a lot and didn't play badly. It was certainly a lot better than his last league game against Arsenal 😬

She’s learnt her lesson about wanting hotels full of foreigners and immigrants being burnt down. See. Prison does work